Hardwood timber structure manufacturer Woodscape Ltd has bought an unusual four-sided planer moulder for the machining of large sections of hardwood.
The company, based in Church, near Blackburn invested more than £60,000 in the Portuguese-made machine to help expand its business into the timber engineering sector.
Unlike conventional moulders, the Mida SPBF-4C features linked side heads which can be positioned at any point across the full width of the 500mm table in order to avoid wear.
The Mida, supplied by Leeds-based Allied Machinery, has a horizontally split machine with a top section which rises and falls on four pillars and features 11 sets of variable speed rollers powered by a 5.5kW motor.
The machine’s first job at Woodscape was machining 1500mm lengths of 225x225mm greenheart, each weighing 85kg.
The company said 40 pieces of greenheart were produced in 40 minutes, compared to just one piece in the same time frame on previous production methods using a combination of thicknessers and surface planers.
